The Methane Hoax Cranks Up

“Denying access and use of the greatest reserves of coal, oil and natural gas that exist in the greatest nation on Earth, the United States of America.” – Alan Caruba

The Methane Hoax Cranks Up

By Alan Caruba

Having spent decades trying to convince everyone that carbon dioxide (CO2) was a “greenhouse gas” that was going to cause the Earth to heat up, the same environmental charlatans are now embarking on a campaign to do the same with methane. In the U.S. the first move was announced by the White House in late March.

The carbon dioxide hoax fell apart in the wake of a cooling cycle affecting the Earth that began around 1997 and continues to this day. Warming and cooling cycles are natural events and both are tied to the activity or lack of it of the Sun. Humans have nothing to do with the climate other to enjoy or endure it.

Why methane? It has a lot to do with the development of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking”, and the way it unlocks natural gas, aka methane, all of which portends an America that is energy independent, along with its huge reserves of coal and oil. If, of course, the government permits this to occur.

As we know, the Obama administration does not want that. It would mean more jobs, greater prosperity, and the ability to pay down the national debt, not to mention drive down the cost of electricity, gasoline, and everything else that depends on energy.

Despite the cooling cycle that is likely to last for many more years, Steve Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, was quoted by the Washington Post saying that “ounce for ounce, methane is 84 times as potent as a greenhouse gas over 20 years” compared to carbon dioxide. “More than a third of the warming that we’ll see as a result of today’s emissions over the next couple of decades comes from, essentially, methane. We need to remain focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but doing so is not enough.”

Excuse me, but the Environmental Defense Fund and countless other Green advocacy groups have been focused on carbon dioxide for decades and the Earth is cooling, not warming. What part of this does Hamburg not understand?

James M. Taylor, the managing editor of Environment & Climate News, a national monthly published by The Heartland Institute, reported in January that “Natural gas fracking is not causing a spike in the U.S. methane emissions”, citing Environmental Protection Agency data. “Methane emissions specific to natural gas are in a long-term decline, down ten percent since 1990 and down seven percent since 2007 when the fracking boom began.”

The Washington Post, however, asserted that emission levels “are set to rise by 2030 as shale oil and shale gas production expands in the United States.” Do you remember all those predictions about the increase of carbon dioxide emissions and how, in ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred years, the Earth would heat up?

This is not about methane, it is about finding a way to shut down fracking and the extraction of natural gas and oil in the same way the Obama administration’s “war on coal” has caused the loss of over 150 coal-fired plants that until it began, were providing electricity. Reducing sources of electricity drives up its cost to everyone. As more natural gas came on line by 2013 it had become the second greatest source of U.S. electricity, but overall the amount of electricity produced was less than in 2007 before the war on coal began.

A natural component of the Earth, it has a number of sources, but one that has also caught the eye of government regulators involves cow flatulence and belching.

The White House has proposed cutting methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25% by 2020. The Environmental Protection Agency has been tracking cow farts since 2012 and now the dairy industry has to worry along with the oil and gas industry. In addition to the EPA, the Bureau of Land Management will be announcing “new standards this fall to reduce venting and flaring from oil and gas production on public lands.”

It’s often best just to let the Greens speak for themselves, revealing their never-ending efforts to attack the energy industry that keeps our lights on, heats and cools our homes, and fuels our cars and trucks. “President Obama’s plan to reduce climate-disrupting methane pollution is an important step in reining in an out of control industry exempt from too many public health protections,” said Deborah Nardone, the director of the Sierra Club’s Keeping Dirty Fuels in the Ground campaign.

“However,” said Ms. Nardone, “even with the most rigorous methane controls in place, we will still fall short of what is needed to fight climate disruption if we do not reduce our reliance on these dirty fossil fuels.”

What the he is a climate disruption? A blizzard, a hurricane, a flood, tornadoes? None of these phenomena have anything to do with using fossil fuels. This is the kind of utter drivel we have all been hearing for decades.

It has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with denying access and use of the greatest reserves of coal, oil and natural gas that exist in the greatest nation on Earth, the United States of America.

19 thoughts on “The Methane Hoax Cranks Up”

I think about the mentality of these “environmentalists”. In reality, they are egoless shells of human beings that have accomplished nothing. They live in the richest and freest country the world has known; they have no real worry, no real care. This gives them the opportunity to try and make themselves important by fighting for “mother earth” against the big bad capitalist. They contribute nothing but take advantage of the prosperity of US. Until these egoless, spineless, do nothing wimps have to be responsible for their own existence, they will find any cause to inflate their pathetic, useless lives. They will not stop as this is their only identity. I tire of this nonsense. If they want a cause, go to any other country and find one. No? That would actually require a real conviction and hardship. They want neither; they just want to denigrate the very society that gives them the privilege to merely exist. What a bunch of useless cowards.

Mike,
You nailed the whole discussion perfectly. Most of these people are exactly the way you described. Usually they are completely incapable of surviving on their own and hold the rest that are the mechanics, electricians, plumbers, loggers, etc. in intellectual contempt. I am 70 years old and a retired mechanic. I have been rubbing elbows with these know it all people for a long time and most of them do not contribute much to society, but do spend a lot of energy on some hopped up idea of saving the planet. Sad.

Prior to their near-extinction in the early to mid 1800’s, it is estimated that the total population of the plains bison was in excess of 60 million. We have approximately 89 million head of cattle in the U.S. as of 2013. Since 1/3 of all cattle are slaughtered every year and most are finished for upwards of 3 months on grain (which produces much less methane than grazing does) one could theorize that methane production via all cattle species in the U.S. has not significantly changed since before Columbus arrived. Yet lets throw a bunch of money at keeping cows from belching and farting because we want to ward off global warming.

Screw it; if we’re so stupid as to worry ourselves over cow flatulence, then we as humans deserve to go extinct.

I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something come out of left field that renders all the green arguments against energy use moot once and for all. The one below is one of the best funded and most visible:

There are others. Will it work? I dunno, but it sure looks interesting.

In addition, there is also the Thorium powered nuclear reactor as an alternative to conventional nuclear reactors. It definitely works and was developed to a working proof of concept reactor in 1960’s.

While modern science may point at methane from the 1.2 billion cows on the planet as a source of methane, where was the warming from the vast herds of bison / buffalo that once roamed from Buffalo, New York to California?

Herds that large, which once stopped trains for DAYS in the 1870’s, must have released some traces of methane from their buffalo chips and belches.

Also, what about the vast herds of animals in Africa, would they not create methane?

And termites, did you know that each termite produces half a microgram of methane per day?

But, since there are so many termites in the world, they produce over 20 million tonnes of methane?

Do believe reezeh that the Earth will have to shrink 25% going back 2 magnetic reversals to accomplish the feat of a pangea.
Each reversal and partial reversal has been proven to expand. Changes the entire magnetic relationship of earth, sun, and solar system, corresponding to time lapses of days and years of ancient to current calendars.
Going from ancient calendars which many disregarded prior and now accepted as truth we sadly are going to experience another such event and will most likely fracture further do to the expansion.
Forethought; I do wish it could be so easy :}

Step back here a moment and think. Methane has been known for decades to be the greater concern. Although from the choir preachers it has been mute for a time. Methane is a heavy gas and in the ocean is in frozen blocks on the ocean floor. Every now and again (also applies to CO2) it “rolls over” causing a large release. Among all the “facts” that killed off “life” on this earth – this is another one that happens. Think boggs and swamps not just critters that ate their way out of “life as they knew it”. We are just in for the ride on this old rock and for all that we try – we have no real perception of what will happen when asteroids, volcanos, earth quakes, solar storms and other maladies such as Al Gore strike all at once. Cheer up – we will be able to say “I told you so” in our life time.